Whenever I run a demanding game on my HP laptop, after a little while, it turns off by itself, quite suddenly
Whenever I run a demanding game like Call of Duty or Godfather on my HP laptop, after a little while, I guess just enough time so the comp gets warm and starts to function at the max, it turns off by itself, quite suddenly. I suppose this is an overheating issue but I’m not sure. I do not know why this is happening suddenly because for about 8 months I have been playing Call of Duty 2 very regularly and for long periods and I have never had this sort of problem before. Perhaps I have too much stuff on the comp which makes things run slower, or perhaps a fan isn’t working properly, I do not know. If you could help me, that would be great.
I think that your guess is correct and your laptop shuts down because of an overheating issue. All computer games push the CPU to its limits and it runs much hotter then during a normal use (not playing games). If the heat sink is clogged with lint and dust, then it will not be able to dissipate all the heat coming from the CPU and the laptop will shut down. The heat sink gets clogged overtime and this is not happening just suddenly. But one day would be a critical day, and the laptop will start to shut down when the CPU is hot. You can easily fix the problem if you clean the heat sink.
If you have a lot of programs running on the background, it will make the laptop slower but it shouldn’t cause the laptop shutdowns.
November 5th, 2007 at 10:43 pm
Hey Laptop Freak;
I have an Acer Aspire 3620 that I bought a year and a half ago that keeps switching off, even when the battery is fully charged or if I’ve plugged it into the wall.
I was playing a computer game yesterday, and I was saving the game before intending to turn the laptop off. Whilst the game was saving, my laptop switched off on its own – I’m sure the battery hadn’t completely run out (a “Windows is now hibernating” screen usually appears) when this happened. I turned my laptop on this morning to see that dreaded “File missing or corrupted.. SYSTEM32″ screen, and now I’m at risk of losing all my files and programs because all my battery cut out. I’ve since found a way to recover them, but my laptop won’t let me as it keeps spontaneously shutting off! Please help me solve this problem, it would be very much appreciated.
November 3rd, 2007 at 10:28 am
can a virus (such as f**g trojan family) shut down a laptop or pc?
October 31st, 2007 at 4:56 am
the problem seemsa common for laptops only…grrr……seems we hv 2 use pc for games …OLLRYTTTT!!!
October 30th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
im using a cool pad too…so over heating is not d problem…
October 30th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
help!! how come my hp laptop pav.dv6000 shuts down in the middle of a game…such as nba live 06 or gta….i only played 5 mins.. then it shutsdown unexpectedly…
October 30th, 2007 at 6:13 am
i guess it has got sumthin 2 do with the motherboard…..a new machine might solve the prob but this prob shouldn’t be there atall!we pay heavily for a lappi n peanuts 4 a pc gives betta service! this is aweful really….any1 know any remedy?
October 30th, 2007 at 6:10 am
my compaq prersario laptop with 1.24 gb ram plays games for around 30 min or more sometimes n then shuts off itself suddenly n i can also hear the fan running or should i say SOUND faster b4 shut off….i got new heat sink got the fan cleaned but the prob continues…..n same with all video encoding softwares…..why is it so?
July 2nd, 2007 at 9:45 am
I have a problem with my laptop shutting off by itself unexpectedly. I own an HP laptop, it used to have a big overheating problem but after I cleaned the fan, the problem seemed to be fixed. But in the past few months, my laptop started shutting off again, overheating can be one of the possibilities, but sometimes when it shuts off, the laptop doesn’t seem hot enough to considered overheated. Sometimes it shuts off when i just turned it on for less than 5 mins. I rarely run demanding programs on my computer. Although the problem does not happen too often, but just the fact that it happened concerns me. I cant find any patterns for this to happen. could it be power surge? (my computer has problems with the usb’s) any suggestions?
May 22nd, 2007 at 8:45 pm
I have 2 Gateway 450SX4’s and they both heat up so bad they shutdown after 15 to 20 minutes. I use a program to monitor the temperature and it shows FIRE after 60 degrees C. Does anyone know how to fix this. I chabged the heatsink and fan assemblies on both computers and they still do the same thing. DO I have to hotwire the fan to keep them cool ??? Or … does anyone know where the heat sensor is ?
Thank you in advance for any response.
Little dick
February 15th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
Ramsey,
I think you cannot access the heat sink from the bottom of the laptop on this model, it’s necessary to take the whole think apart and remove the motherboard. Download a maintenance and service guide for HP Pavilion dv8000 notebook PC and you’ll find step-by-step disassembly instructions in the Removal and Replacement Procedures chapter.
I wouldn’t open up the laptop if it’s still under warranty.
You also can use an air compressor to blow off the heat sink and fans through the air intakes on the bottom.
February 14th, 2007 at 8:23 am
I have an HP Pavilion dv8000 and I’m going to attempt to clean it myself. It’s still under 1yr warranty but I do NOT want to wait 3-6 weeks for it to be ‘fixed’. Where do I find the heatsink? Are there any guides/images out there for me to follow? Thanks!
February 11th, 2007 at 6:33 pm
ashey wooten,
How about other sites, they work properly? If you use IE6 or IE7 browser, you can refresh by pressing F5 or go to View tab and then click on Refresh. I think there could be an error on the website and it’s not your fault.
February 11th, 2007 at 6:26 pm
Leongai,
What do you mean by this? The laptop shuts down completely by itself or what? Maybe the laptop overheats? Check the heat sink and if it’s clogged clean it.
February 11th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
I bought a new lap top. When I go to MyHPGames the message says:
Configexe error
error line 0 column 0
I do not know where to go to refresh the site.
Thank you.
February 11th, 2007 at 11:51 am
Hey can u tell me how to se up my acer for no auto shutoff
February 10th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
my friend while playing warcraft or RO, his laptop Acer will turn off harddisk automatic, although he set that never automatic turnoff harddisk or laptop but after about 10minute will turnoff too
can i know wat is te problem?
he said his Ram is 1.49GB, is harddisk to hot?
or heatsink got dust?
February 10th, 2007 at 3:02 pm
Ty, i ordered 512mb ram it is 512mb ddr2 and the stick that is in my computer now is 512mb ddr2 is that what i needed as in will that work and fit.
February 10th, 2007 at 5:12 am
You should buy some RAM yes. I would prefer 2 GB, and that’s the same amount I have. Vista steals a lot of RAM and leaves very little over for other things. Espacially for applications that demand a lot of memory. 2 GB will make your laptop run like he’s on clouds…
February 9th, 2007 at 10:03 pm
Carl,
I don’t have a lot of experience with Windows Vista yet and I’m not a gamer but 512MB is definitely not enough for this operating system. I would go with another 512MB stick or even more.
February 9th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
UM yes i just got a new aspire 3690 and it has windows vista and 512mb ddr2 ram and i play world of warcarft when i was instaling world or warcarft it says my ram amount was low ans i clicked ok just beacsue i was dieing to play and when i play if u hold the button to make me turn fast or even if i run fast for a while i will freeze up ans my coomputer will restart most the time i just normally laggin if im not getting restarted do u think that i just need another 512mb ddr2 stick of ram all my friends are telling me tahts y becuase windows vista takes up memory so i prolly have like hardly any ram while im playing.
February 4th, 2007 at 2:46 am
Hey
I have a very similar problem. My computer is a gateway M285 tablet. It has the X1400 Ati Radeon Mobility graphics card. The computer says it’s a 256 card; however it also says its hyperthreated. My problem is that when I try to run games like age of empires 3 the computer shuts down after a few minutes. I used to have this same problem with Lord of the Rings Battle for Middle earth 2; however it stopped when I started using a cooling fan and turned down the graphics. The same is true for Age of Mythology. For much older games like age of empires 2 the computer won’t even freeze or anything. The graphics card has an option to keep a log when there is a problem. When I activated that option, instead of my computer shutting down it would start freezing during game play and then just pull me out of the game. The error would read “Video card stopped responding so it was restarted.” Any suggestions?
February 1st, 2007 at 7:57 pm
Nate,
It’s very easy to access and clean the heatsink on a Toshiba Satellite M45 notebook, just follow steps 1-6. Remove the heatsink and blow off dust. I would also replace thermal grease on the processor, you can buy it in any local computer store.
January 30th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
hey ive got a problem like this too with my toshiba satellite m45-s165. in the past few days i have tryed to watch a movie using an s-video cord to my TV. after about 20 minutes or so it decided to shut off all by itself. then i have to wait about 10-15minutes before it will turn back on. after reading some of the posts on yout site, i think it is a overheating problem…only problem is i have no idea how/where to start??
January 25th, 2007 at 8:07 pm
Daniel,
When the cooling fan spins, it sucks up an air (and dust) through the intakes on the bottom of the laptop. After that the air (again with dust) goes through the heat sink. Overtime you can get a thick dust builtup on the heatsink and it prevents normal airflow. As a result the CPU overheats and the laptop shuts down. Here are some examples of clogged heat sinks.
You’ll have to clean up the heat sink, not the fan.
January 24th, 2007 at 2:23 pm
I have an Acer Extensa 2500 Notebook (P4 2.8 Ghz, 768 RAM, ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 IGP).
I have the same problem as desribed above,since about 5 or 6 months ago; everytime I play a game, it works fine for a while (10-15 minute) then it shut off (not shut down)immediately.
Most of the time, before it went off, I can hear the fan was going faster than normal.
I guess this problem is also related with overheating, but I wonder why it could be happened when my notebook’s fan is seems to be fine (working like it should)? Will it help to clean the fan? or is there any other possible causes? any help will be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
January 19th, 2007 at 12:15 am
Ryan,
First of all rum memory test (Memtest 86+) and hard drive test (Hitachi drive fitness test). Make sure the cooling fan is working when the CPU is hot. Reinstall Windows just to make sure it’s not software related problem. Check if the laptop has the latest BIOS installed, upgrade it if needed.
January 17th, 2007 at 1:18 am
I have an HP DV4000 18 months old with similar shut off problem described above. It will shutoff more frequently when doing more intensive operations but sometimes with even lightweight stuff. I took in in for testing and they say the cleaned the fan and heat sink and the problem was not there. They reckon it is either a Windows issue (which I doubt) or a new motherboard is needed (which is to expensive $450 quoted). For lack of other options I may have to buy a new machine but this problem seems to be common with many makes and models. Do you have any other suggestions
January 15th, 2007 at 6:58 pm
my laptop was bran-new the hard-drive blew when i was playing zuma i had to dend it back and it did it again si i had to send it back for the second time. it seems to be working better i joined game tap i like the simple games.
January 11th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
Jeremy,
Find an air compressor or buy a can of compressed air (you’ll find it in any local computer store) and blow off the heatsink. See if it makes any difference
January 11th, 2007 at 9:09 am
I have an HP laptop that shuts down on its own. I usually leave it on, but every couple of days, at night, it will turn itself off. It does it while i am asleep so I’m not using a demanding program. The only thing that could be running is the scheduled virus scan, but that is every day, and the laptop only turns off maybe every couple of days. It does get very hot but I’ve never had a problem and even have the back propped up to let it have more space to cool off.